X'ed Out

Tera Melos

On Patagonian Rats, Tera Melos pulled back a little from their M.O. of crafting these crazy sonic freakouts with winding song structures in favour of more pop sensibilities and more prominent vocals. Well X'ed Out, their 2013 follow-up, pushes that needle a little further in that pop direction. Less guitar chaos, spontaneity, and more sunny indie-rock tunes with honest-to-goodness choruses. It's not a complete turn from their style though. There's still angular chord progressions and odd metered time signatures, but the band seems less interested in piling as many as they can into one song. Even when they do, the transitions are not at all jarring. To counteract these more pop sensibilities, the production and mixing this time around is a little messy. The drum performances are more live; not as refined while the guitar sounds are a little more prickly. This collection might not sound as great or be as impressive technically as their last, however, this record arguably has some of Tera Melos' catchiest and most fun songs.

Three of my favourite tunes here flirt with a beach vibe and if you have the tracklist in front of you, you could probably guess which songs I'm talking about. Sunburn has one of my favourite guitar riffs across their whole catalogue, a rapidly alternate picked pattern that doesn't quite line up with the 4/4 rhythm the drums are playing. After a few cycles though (because math is cool), the two parts magically align again. The drums and the guitars are quite rigid in this section, so it's nice to hear bassist Nathan Latona just riffing away as he typically does on a Tera Melos track. This whole track is an unreal upbeat jam, but the part that truly makes this special is towards the end right before the last chorus. Drummer John Clardy goes off playing this hyperactive and intricate drum pattern involving the kick, snare, and hi-hats. When the opening riff I mentioned earlier shifts to a different key, Clardy puts both hands to the hi-hat and takes things to an even higher level of musicianship.

Tropic Lame is a little more reserved on the performance end, but there are still a lot of exciting elements here. The feedback and noise that kick the track off immediately gets the heart going. The chorus has an awesome chromatic step-down progression that I absolutely love as well as some catchy unison bends. The bridge slightly modifies some guitar parts in the chorus and extends them into this lengthy phrase that seems to have no end until it randomly cycles around again. It adds an element of unpredictability to this otherwise fairly approachable pop-rock tune. Then there's Surf Nazis, which is pretty driving because of Nick Reinhart's mashing on this one chord, bending it up and down constantly to create this warped feeling. As that's happening, Clardy is furiously doing his best to make sure every cymbal at his drum kit is moving at the same time. Reinhart's voice, soft and harmonized, cuts through the chaos, giving you something to hold on to when things get to be too overwhelming. The ending of this track is totally stellar as well. Heavy, catchy, epic, it almost mirrors how the last album closed out.

Tera Melos have incorporated some ambient stuff into their songs before, but rarely do these ideas become their own songs. On X'ed Out, we get two. They have shimmering guitar effects, odd little bleeps and bloops, softly whispered vocals, and sometimes some fuzzy wailing guitar. Both Snake Lake and No Phase offer a nice little reprieve from the crashing and crackle of cymbals and guitars. And if you want Tera Melos at their oddest, then I will point you towards Bite and Slimed. The former has a lumbering beat with a really menacing guitar riff that later flips sugary sweet in the chorus, while the latter has a guitar riff that flexes these really weird intervals along with a herky-jerk groove. The longer you listen to it the more you crave it.

My favourite song by far is Until Lufthansa. It is the most catchy and perhaps the best mixed tune on the record making it the easiest to digest. It is also maybe the most spontaneous song on the record too as evidenced by the long guitar phrases that are made up of a series of cheery lines all tethered together, as well as the numerous guitar tags that transition between sections. I truly love the melancholic ending, where a guitar line from the pre-chorus is looped. Clardy plays a great drum beat that lets the song breathe for a rare moment as Reinhart plays these dramatic, chorused notes. The song meditates on this part for a rather long period of time, and frankly, it's quite perfect.

What else is there to say? This is another great record from one of my all-time favourite bands. There's only a few things I wish were slightly different, more palatable production would be one of them. The ever-present crunchiness that surrounds the cymbals and the sharp, brittle guitars can get a little fatiguing after a while. Another small gripe would be the decision to have X'ed Out and Tired close the record. I do like the kind of monotonous and mind-numbing nature of this song, however, the ending of Surf Nazis would have made for a much better and triumphant ending (X'ed Out and Tired is actually cut from the LP version most likely due to time constraints I would guess). Other than that though, X'ed Out is (on paper) a much more fun and easy-going record compared to its predecessor. It's a record that appeals equally to the heart as it does the mind.